In Email To His Staff, WSJ's Robert Thomson Praises His Paper's 'Far Superior' Enterprise Journalism

In an email to the entire The Wall Street Journal news
staff, publisher Robert Thomson trumps some of
the successes in 2010.

Specifically, he discusses the “What They Know” series, a
Medicare series called “Secrets of the System," the BP Oil Spill
news, and the coverage of the European Debt Crisis, which "was
far superior to that of any other international news
organization."

It's worth pausing for a moment to consider the profound impact
of our enterprise journalism in the past year. There were many
examples of institutional infelicities and underdone oversight
exposed, and necessary reforms being prompted by excellent,
sustained reporting. That crucial role was both global and
national, as a few examples will highlight:

+Our online privacy series, “What They Know”, detailed the
alarmingly pervasive practice of tracking American consumers
online, and triggered significant steps to combat abuses:
1) Senate bill. The series prompted a major bipartisan bill
sponsored by John McCain and John Kerry calling for a “privacy
Bill of Rights” for Americans. It was a direct response to our
work, as the senators made clear in introducing the bill, with
Senator McCain reading from a What They Know article at the press
conference.
2) House bill. The series also prompted a bipartisan
privacy bill in the House, introduced by Cliff Stearns (R, Fla.)
and Utah Democrat Jim Matheson, that encouraged companies to
offer more information to consumers about how they are being
tracked. The bill also called for the data-collection industry to
develop a policing program that would be approved by the Federal
Trade Commission.
3) The series has echoed through the advertising and tech
industries, with industry groups toughening privacy codes and
dozens of businesses changing basic practices. Microsoft, Apple
and Mozilla have all moved to install robust new privacy features
in their browsers in direct response to our report of Microsoft’s
quashing of a privacy feature at the behest of advertisers.

+Our Medicare series, “Secrets of the System”, used sophisticated
computer-assisted reporting to expose fraud and medical
malpractice in the Medicare system, triggering legislation and
investigations:
1) The series was the catalyst for legislation that enhanced the
public’s ability to fight fraud and abuse in the
$500-billion-a-year Medicare system: a bill was introduced in the
Senate to unlock the Medicare billing data base to public
scrutiny, in direct response to our stories. The bipartisan
Medicare Data Access for Transparency and Accountability Act, or
DATA Act, was introduced this month by Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) and
Charles Grassley (R., Iowa). It was inspired by the WSJ series,
cited by Sen. Grassley in his introduction to the bill. Sen.
Wyden said "hiding" the data was "indefensible in a free
society".
2) The series has spurred major investigations of fraud and
malpractice. Two doctors tracked by the Journal have been
investigated by Federal authorities for alleged fraud. A doctor
profiled this month has had his operating privileges revoked and
is the subject of further investigations.
3) The Journal is pursuing a court case seeking to overturn the
1979 injunction which bars public access to the Medicare
data.

+Our BP oil-spill coverage had a remarkable impact on the
response to the crisis and long-term energy policy:
1) A story revealing how the Minerals Management Service had
ceded oversight of the offshore drilling industry to the drillers
led to the agency’s breakup.
2) Our prompt investigation of the causes of the rig disaster was
the road map for the official investigators, with the Journal’s
work being repeatedly cited by the House Energy and Commerce
Committee and the Senate Energy and Natural Resources
Committee.
The coverage of Japan’s multiple tragedies and the ongoing
nuclear-power disaster is following the same pattern of
excellence, with three major world exclusives thus far on the
antecedents of the crisis, including a report that exposed the
lack of safety planning and equipment at the Fukushima
plant.

+Our coverage of the European Debt Crisis was far superior to
that of any other international news organization.
In addition to the scoopy and beautifully, lyrically written
“Europe on the Brink” narratives, we had major news exclusives
exposing the weakness of Europe’s bank stress tests and
investigations of European government balance sheets that
influenced the handling of the crisis.

+Congressional expenses - our series of reports on Congress
members’ travel spending spawned a change in House travel rules:
House leaders revamped the guidelines for lawmakers and aides who
travel overseas on official government business at taxpayer
expense, forbidding them business class on shorter trips and
banning the pocketing of unspent cash, among other changes. These
changes were the first significant overhaul of the House's travel
rules in more than 30 years. They came after The Wall Street
Journal published a series of articles documenting the perks of
congressional travel and uncovering bipartisan abuses.

+Libor coverage - since 2008, Journal reporters have been probing
the alleged manipulation of the Libor interest-rate standard.
U.S. investigators are now examining whether some of the world's
biggest banks colluded to manipulate that rate before and during
the financial crisis, affecting trillions of dollars in loans and
derivatives. The investigators are looking into whether the banks
effectively formed a cartel and distorted global borrowing costs
between 2006 and 2008.

And 2011 will bring even more ambitious coverage. We have already
begun several major series of enterprise work - not to mention
the continuation of the Medicare magnum opus - and will be
rolling out more projects in coming weeks and months. We should
all celebrate work that has been far ahead of the competition and
far-reaching in its efficacy,